1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to electronic delivery of documents in a network environment, and more specifically to using a highly integrated plug-and-play system to deliver possibly differing types of documents over possibly differing types of electronic media to possibly differing types of target devices.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Internet e-mail is suited for delivering various types of documents to a dispersed workforce, yet facsimile (FAX) continues to support a significant share of many business processes. Target devices ranging from full function computers to hand held Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and cell phones complicate communications. A user who needs to send one document to numerous recipients needs to know something about each of the target devices, which have their own conditions for the types of documents they can receive. Conventionally, these conditions are stored in the user's communication device and must be kept current by individual users, which is burdensome.
There exist several methods for separately sending different types of documents, but no current system can send diverse types of documents simultaneously. Moreover, no present system allows a user to send the same document simultaneously to different types of target devices. Conventional solutions require installation and integration of various hardware and software components such as a computer, fax modems, network interfaces, fax server software, e-mail server software, database and application interface code.
Current document delivery methods also restrict the format of documents that may be sent or received. For example, some systems can only send and receive Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) documents, others only facsimile documents, and still others only graphical documents such as plot files or character delimited data. There are a number of current methods for analyzing an incoming document and converting it to a desired format before delivering it to a specific target device, but none have, from a single “plug-and-play” network device, the ability to simultaneously send the same document to multiple users with different target device types.
A further restriction on current methods is related to complexity. Providing document delivery service to multiple types of devices requires complex conversion processes that need to be loaded and run, which involves difficult initial installation and ongoing maintenance. Contemporary systems, when faced with new or changed input file types or target devices, do not have the ability to “plug-and-play.”
What is needed is a system and method for delivering a plurality of document types to a variety of target devices without the need to assemble the appropriate hardware components or to manually install or maintain software drivers and software applications.
Current systems maintain an acceptable number of lines idle by setting lines to “Receive Only,” “Send Only,” or “Bi-Directional.” It is common practice for Administrators to configure “Receive Only” lines as an assurance that they won't send a “busy” tone to incoming calls. This method does not allow a dynamic mix of send and receive jobs to fully utilize the lines and still maintain a dedicated number of lines idle for incoming calls. Instead, the administrator must predict and fix a static setting for the expected send and receive workload.